A Word About Twitter's Journalist Purge

Something different? Not really; just the usual gripes about the ongoing murder of journalism during the "Thursday Night Massacre."

Hello, friends,

No deep dives here, today. No catchy topics to focus on. No (or, very little) research, here. And no mercy, either.

And, yes, I realize there’s a great deal of irony in the number of times I find myself linking to Twitter accounts, especially as some or all of them may not exist by the time you read this.

Elon Musk has initiated a massive purge of his new toy’s userbase. In particular, he has targeted journalists: Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann, and up to half a dozen others (at time of writing) have been banned from the platform I would once have recognized as the crowned jewel of journalism. After all, what news agency isn’t on Twitter? Who among the political elite doesn’t at least have an eye on the Trending tab? Where else would you report Earthquakes?!

Well, about that…The host of the Mueller She Wrote podcast, Allison Gill, referred to today’s events as the “Thursday Night Massacre,” a fitting enough term. For his part, Aaron Rupar has no idea why he was banned, and has yet to receive any feedback from Twitter itself. Ben Collins of NBC News summed up the only visible connection between all of these bans:

These journalists all reported on Elon Musk and/or Twitter.

The Threat Of Consolidated Media Falling Into Dangerous Hands

I don’t think I need to tell you (dear reader, who might be better informed when you read this as opposed to what I am while I write it) what the chief danger here is, but I’ll share my thoughts on it, anyway.

When Elon took over Twitter, the concern raised by those such as Beau Of The Fifth Column revolved around the concept of “Brand Safety.” Put basically: The only reason media megacorporations like The Washington Post and The New York Times (and us little guys…) built up such a foundation on Twitter was because the site was perceived as essentially stable and harm-free. It was unlikely that a post reporting about atrocious crimes would be paired with ads advocating for such things, and vice-versa. To use a plausible example, a person searching for information about the Club Q shooting wasn’t going to find an ad for guns.

In other words, it was safe for brands to associate with Twitter.

Musk’s lightening-up on hate speech regulations, as well as his open friendships with outright terrorist users like Libs Of TikTok, were the first steps toward what is now a rapidly deteriorating cesspool. It’s bad enough that Nazis - yes, Nazis - like Andrew Anglin were let back on Twitter. The kind of hate speech that these people are wont to spew is exactly the last thing that most brands would like the risk of their ads popping up next to.

But, now, Musk is wholesale purging journalists from major news organizations, and that represents a whole new threat. It’s like him saying, “We can ban any of your reporters for no stated reason, you’d better be nice to me.” It’s really honestly pathetic that the world’s sometimes-richest man is so dependent on positive feedback.

The question I’m left with is:

How Will News Agencies & Journalists Respond To Musk’s Tyranny?

So far, there has been an outcry from journalists both on and off of Twitter. Many are reconsidering whether the “Go down with the ship” approach has reached its pinnacle. It’s surely a Ship Of Theseus situation: At what point does “the ship” that is New Twitter become a totally different ship from Old Twitter, and thus signal that the ship has indeed sunk, been raised, been repaired, and put back at sea?

I’m a very small-time journalist, and I’m planning to stay until I get banned for criticizing Elon. (Call me a clout chaser, I guess?)

But eventually this approach of Elon banning journalists is going to have to come home to roost. News agencies are now having to weigh whether or not reporting honest facts about Twitter/Musk will get them or their reporters cut off from what was one of the largest oases for telecommunications.

Obviously the question turns to alternatives, but there are none which are freshly evident: Mastodon is nice, and feels a lot like Twitter, but it’s like a chain of islands substituting for a single landmass given how federation works (of which I admittedly understand very little). Tribel is interesting, but seems very niche and under-developed. Post is nice; it definitely has a Twitter-like vibe, and seems to be a place where journalists are migrating, but it is also underdeveloped. Then, of course, there’s Tumblr for our artistic sides - but it’s not a news ecosystem, and isn’t set up to try to be one.

But most of these sites are just babies. “Eggs,” if you will. It’s hard to say how they’ll develop, or where the news ecosystem will migrate to, but it seems inevitable that at least a significant portion of the journalistic world is going to transition, or at least duplicate its presence.

Time will tell, I guess. Thank you for reading.

Edit: Addition

Here’s Musk’s statement on why he banned them. I don’t think I buy his excuse.

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author and political commentator from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.